


What Everyone Thinks

by delighted



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Fake/Pretend Relationship, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sassy Danny "Danno" Williams, Smitten Steve, Sweet, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-08-14 13:08:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20192794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delighted/pseuds/delighted
Summary: People who don’t already know them just tend to assume they are a couple. And that has to say something, doesn’t it? (He really wants it to say something.)Or—When Danny gets injured while he and Steve are undercover, they have to pretend to be a couple. Unfortunately, that’s really easy for Steve to do. Maybe a little too easy.





	What Everyone Thinks

**Author's Note:**

> I started this waaay back in March. Finally, here we go.

“Mmmph, stop squirming, Steven.”

Steve stills, holding his breath to contain his reaction. He gets an elbow in the ribs for his pains.

“Mm didn’t say stop breathing you dolt.”

Danny squirms further against him, filling the bare inches Steve had managed to create between them, which considering Steve’s barely clinging to the edge of the bed as it is doesn’t really help things. But the poor guy’s doped up on pain meds, half his body is probably a bruise, and of course it’s all Steve’s fault, so he isn’t about to complain. The fact that Danny’s ass is now fairly well pressed against Steve’s groin, well. He’s just going to have to try realllly hard to pretend he’s not noticed that, now isn’t he.

This is what he gets, he figures, for letting himself be persuaded into this ridiculous idea in the first place. He blames Danny’s recent reading habits, as somewhere along the line he’d decided their lives weren’t adventurous enough and he needed to take up reading spy novels in his spare time. And, okay, Steve had been amused by it at first. Then somewhere around the fifth book, he had begun to suspect Danny was doing it out of some sort of odd quest to learn the lingo, presumably to find new ways of teasing and tormenting Steve. 

By the seventh book he’d been sure of it.

But that had been nothing compared to Danny’s reaction when the case they’d been stalled on had turned up the possibility that some good old fashioned espionage might be the key to break it open. Danny had been, in retrospect, a little too quick to volunteer them for it. 

Steve, in his defense, had tried to talk Danny out of it, suggesting Junior and Tani were maybe a little better suited for it, what with it being a jungle adventure camp for nature deprived city dwelling professionals and all.

He’d failed. Obviously.

Which explains why, at roughly three in the morning on day two of said adventure camp, Steve finds himself squished in a narrow camp bed with a drugged and injured Danny, things not looking at all like they’ll get any actual spy work done, and looking a lot more like Steve is going to wind up seriously regretting not locking Danny in his office when this whole thing started. Or somehow burning all the spy novels on the island. (Yes that last thought is completely pointless because Danny is reading them on his phone but there’s not really anything Steve can do about the internet, alright?) Still. It’s kind of difficult to complain when Danny’s pressed so warmly against him... _in bed_. 

Yeah. He’s in bed with Danny. And okay, it’s not the way he’s imagined it, when he has imagined it (and he’s not admitting how frequent an occurrence that’s been). And, alright. It would be nice to be able to relax and not be afraid of falling out of said bed. But maybe being balanced on the knife’s edge of this not very comfortable situation isn’t the worst place he could be, and if it means he’s awake all night, maybe that’s not so awful either, because it means more time he gets to be fully aware of the solid, warm, and surprisingly sweet-smelling body pressed into his.

Yeah, actually, never mind... being aware of it is _not_ a good idea.

He really should try and sleep anyway, because he figures he has two choices in the morning (scratch that, in roughly three and a half hours) because either he leaves Danny alone in the cabin and attempts to continue the investigation without him, or he plays the overly concerned partner (which means people will think they’re a couple—assuming, he supposes, there’s anyone who doesn’t already think that) and stays with Danny all day while the others are out on the ropes course or whatever adventure the day’s schedule promised. 

Which, actually.... Huh. Having a deserted base camp to themselves might be just what he needs to find the incriminating evidence they are after. Maybe getting injured wasn’t such a bad idea after all. (Not that he’s implying Danny did it on purpose, ohh, no, Steve is not going down that path again, thank you very much.) But it _does_ give them an excuse. All he has to do is pretend to feel obligated to take care of Danny. And be convincing enough in the role of Concerned Boyfriend to not raise suspicion. 

Unfortunately that’s not something he’s going to have to work very hard at. 

Maybe he should be more concerned about Danny realizing he’s not faking it. Which itself truly is a worrying thought, but it's one that leads rather nicely into some slightly fantastical imaginings of what it might be like _if Danny didn’t mind_.... 

And on that note, Steve does actually manage some sleep. 

When it comes to it, by the light of day, it doesn’t really matter how convincing or not convincing Steve is, because Danny is so caught up in his usual second-day-after-an-injury, in-pain-and-therefore-acting-like-a-jerk phase—so caught up in it that Steve could probably kiss him and Danny wouldn’t blink.

Which is a strangely compelling notion.

And very distracting. Which isn’t something Steve needs right now on top of the whole next-to-no-sleep thing. So he focuses on the task at hand, and he gets into the offices easily enough, but what they’re looking for isn’t there, and he ends up back in their room after too short a time. And maybe he should have left Danny alone a bit longer, because he doesn’t know how much more of the angry, this-is-all-your-fault ritual he’s up for, given how little sleep he’s had. 

If he could get Danny to nap, he could have one too... but the whole reason he’d ended up in Danny’s bed last night had been because of some weird thing Danny has about not being able to sleep alone when he’s hurt and something about Steve making a good heating pad? 

Frankly it hadn’t been terribly believable, but Steve had caved easily—you know, the whole anything-to-shut-you-up-Danno thing. (Yeah, yeah, okay, and something about wanting to be in bed with Danny anyway.) 

But maybe Steve’s actually overestimated for once, how much pain Danny’s in, because when he explains how he’d not been able to get what they needed, and maybe his lack of sleep makes him seem more disappointed by that than he actually is? Because Danny really softens, and he starts to try to comfort Steve about the whole situation. Which is like seventeen kinds of weird. (Okay, and forty seven kinds of wonderful.)

“Well,” Danny muses, once he’s got Steve on the bed with him, his head resting in Danny’s lap, being petted like he’s some kind of giant retriever (which honestly is not unlike how Steve feels some of the time, the way Danny treats him). “Maybe this whole plan was just dumb from the beginning.”

Steve _mmms_ against Danny’s lap, and maybe he nestles in a little, but he didn’t sleep hardly at all, please remember, so it’s totally understandable. 

“Maybe when they restock mid-week the other partner brings the paperwork,” Danny suggests. “Since we’re already here we should just wait it out.”

And Steve’s torn between being impressed Danny’s willing to do that, and feeling horrible about keeping him here, injured and confined, even if it means getting to rest his head in Danny’s lap.

“Naw, buddy,” he forces himself to protest. “It’s not worth it. We’ll find another way.”

And Danny hesitates. Steve feels a low rumble through Danny’s body as he _hmms_, mulling something over. 

“Let’s give it till then just to see. Besides. I can’t exactly hike out of here like this, so I may as well rest in this lovely setting.”

And now Steve really _is_ worried. Because when has Danny ever called nature _lovely_? He must betray his incredulousness somehow in his body’s tension or with his grunt, because Danny chuckles softly and ruffles Steve’s hair. 

“Oh, shush. I like nature just fine. As long as it comes with decent food and a comfortable bed.”

Now, granted, the food here is excellent. But the beds.... Well. Aside from the whole _finally sharing a bed with Danny_ thing, they’re not exactly five star. 

But then it occurs to Steve that maybe that’s exactly what Danny means, because when his fingers resume their path through Steve’s hair, they feel somehow more weighted, more meaningful. And that’s doing the strangest things to Steve’s insides. 

“I could rustle us up some snacks,” Steve offers after a beat, unsure what else to say, and feeling for some odd reason like he needs to play the role of provider or something.

Danny hesitates and Steve knows he’s tempted. But then he decides against it. “If we’re gonna pull this off, we’d better be careful. Speaking of, how’d you swing it that staying with me made sense?”

And it gives him pause. Because after his initial worry how Danny might react to his plan, he’d slid unthinkingly into relying on Danny remaining oblivious and hadn’t counted on this sudden return to his usual astute awareness. He thinks for one long moment about misleading Danny, but figures that’s a game he’s not likely to win. 

“I uh... I implied that what everyone already was thinking about us was true....”

And Steve half expects Danny to not know what he means, or at least to pretend to not know what he means, but Danny just laughs. Softly, warmly, fondly. “Well, we’ll just have to play that up, then, now won’t we.”

_That’s it_. Something really _is_ wrong with Danny, Steve’s certain of it. He’ll try and remember later to check him for fever or something.... But not just now. In a little bit. Because Danny’s hand on his head is really nice, and being nestled here on his lap is _really_ nice... and he’s just gonna soak it up for a little bit longer first....

It’s not till nearly three hours later that he stirs awake to find Danny’s dozed off as well. Hand still on Steve’s head, other arm pillowed behind his own head where it rests against the simple wooden headboard. Steve adjusts slightly, so he can watch Danny sleep, and he finds himself thinking he could stay here like this for an improbably long period of time, and just how dangerous that might be. 

It’s seductive, this feeling of other world-ness out here in the jungle. They can’t be more than twenty minutes as the crow flies from civilization, but it feels not just like hours away, but _decades_ away. The simple but elegant furnishings could be from a hundred years ago. The treehouse-like structures that make up the camp are straight out of Swiss Family Robinson. 

But more than that, there’s something in the air that makes him want to forget reality, forge some new existence, some new way of being. One where Danny’s place in his life is closer to this—together in bed, hand possessively, warmly, on his head... rather than simply by his side, gun in hand, backs together, the two of them against the world. 

He wasn’t kidding that it wasn’t hard to imply they are a couple. People who don’t already know them just tend to assume it. And that has to say something, doesn’t it? (He really wants it to say something.) 

“Uuugh, ouch,” Danny mutters as he crashes towards wakefulness and the return of his pain, and it’s the end of the sleepy warm coziness, and Steve instantly misses it. 

“Here, buddy, better take some more meds,” and he offers Danny the pills and bottle of water from the bedside table.

“Nah,” Danny says sleepily as he waves them off. “They make me dopey, and I wanna be on my game when everyone’s back. I’ll take more before bed so I sleep.”

It occurs to Steve as he smiles fondly down at Danny, who is adorable when he’s dopey, that Danny’s been hanging out with him a little too long. Because ten years ago no way would Danny have refused pain meds, no matter what the context. He keeps the thought to himself. 

“Okay, bud, but promise to tell me if the pain gets too much. You know it’s easier to stay on top of it than it is to have to climb back up.”

Danny grins, rubs his hand gently along Steve’s arm, and something clearly is getting to him, Steve’s certain of it. “Promise, babe. Now, I think I hear people returning, so we should go to the dining hall soon for drinks.”

“Uh, right. Should we talk about...?”

“Nah, shouldn’t be too hard to pretend to be a couple.” There’s something about Danny’s smile that feels like danger to Steve, but his easy dismissal is hard to resist. “Just follow my lead,” Danny says as he heads to freshen up and change for the surprisingly elegant cocktail hour that precedes the five course gourmet meal the camp serves each night. City slickers may be willing to rough it during the day in the jungle, but evidently not at the expense of good wine and fine food come nightfall.

And so it is that he finds himself, only a scant twenty minutes later, with Danny’s arm solidly, possessively around his waist, drink in one hand, platter of fancy appetizers on the table beside them, listening to Danny talk about how they met, to someone named Francine from Sacramento. He’s clever, is Danny. Because he uses reality but twists it, so they met at work under some kind of corporate takeover, and somehow Danny comes out all sympathetic and long suffering while Steve seems a little bit like he had to be converted away from the dark side with nothing but Danny’s wits and his skill as a negotiator. 

Once Francine’s moved away to rejoin her cohorts for dinner, Steve tugs on Danny to draw him close enough to whisper “Maybe could you make it seem a little less like I’m a jerk and you’re the hero?”

“I’m just working with reality here, babe. Gotta keep it authentic.”

And Steve thinks probably that punching Danny wouldn’t go over very well, but the urge is still there. Although if he’s honest it’s a bit tangled up in a desire to do something that’s a little closer to kissing than hitting.... Which is maybe a tad problematic. But it adds veracity to their role play. And if he keeps a tighter hold on Danny for the rest of the evening, well, it’s explainable to Danny in terms of Steve wanting to keep him from getting carried away in his portrayal of Steve as _not a very pleasant person till I fixed him_.

And it’s nice. The closeness is. Having not just an excuse to touch, but a _need_, a reason. Being able to do little things he’s thought about but not been free to do, like run a finger down Danny’s palm, pour him more wine, offer him a taste of his fish, rest his hand on his thigh. And the way Danny responds to it all. Well it’s intriguing to say the least. He’s never thought of Danny as an especially great actor, prone as he is to wear his heart on his sleeve, but maybe he’s been wrong about that all these years, because he weaves this deliciously subtle layer of reactions to each of Steve’s actions. And not that Steve is an expert in the field of faking romantic displays, but he feels like they’re doing a really excellent job. 

It turns out Danny agrees with him, once they’re alone back in their room, because Danny praises him for his skill in deception, and Steve comes perilously close to admitting there was absolutely nothing false in anything he did or said. But he’s weak and afraid, so he says nothing, and if, as he falls asleep, Danny’s body pressed close to his own seeking soothing heat for his injury, if Steve finds himself thinking it would be nice if they could just stay here forever, well, no one but him will ever know, so it’s not like it does any harm. 

Except that of course it kind of does, because they are only here for a few more days, and after that... after that they have to go back to _not_ pretending to be in love, which considering Steve’s not _actually _pretending, frankly it’ll suck. He knows that. 

Well. Better make the most of it while he can, right? 

Unfortunately for Steve, after breakfast the next morning, Danny decides that for the sake of realism Steve had better go on the day's adventure, which involves a hike and some caving and a swim in a hole Danny insinuates is sure to be populated with single celled organisms much like Steve. (“It’ll be a family reunion, babe, you gotta go.”) It’s the kind of day Steve would, under normal circumstances, truly enjoy. But these aren’t exactly normal circumstances. Because circumstances don’t ordinarily include a doped up, sweet and affectionate Danny wanting to share a bed with him. 

Besides. Losing the whole day doesn’t exactly go along with his whole _making the most of it_ plan. 

But Danny insists. “I’ve got my book, I’ll soak in the hot tub and I’ll rest lots, and then I’ll be really needy at dinner, so it’ll give you an excuse to beg off tomorrow’s activities. That way you’ll be here when the deliveries happen and you’ll be able to track down that paperwork.”

Sometimes Steve’s really grateful Danny’s so smart. 

So of course he agrees, but if he plays his part, of the distracted, concerned partner remarkably well, it’s only because he’s not acting. And if he reacts, when Francine says how lucky he is to have someone as wonderful as Danny, with complete sincerity, it’s because that’s something he thinks every single day. 

He does enjoy the hike. And during the caving all he can think is he’s glad Danny’s hurt and not with them because he’d hate it. And when he drops off the rope swing into the swimming hole he has one tiny flash of delight at getting to play freely without Danny ruining it with some obsessive worry or other. But threaded in with each of those thoughts is a very real sense that he would rather be back in their cabin, resting his head in Danny’s lap, watching him sleep. 

And it’s not like he’s not used to his mind providing distractions along the lines of _things he’d rather be doing with Danny_. It’s just that usually he doesn’t have an actual opportunity, or a fantasy that’s quite so vivid and real. Part of his brain, in other words, seems to have bought into the lie that they’re actually a couple. And he isn’t sure he can convince it otherwise. Isn’t sure he _wants_ to.

When they get back to camp, Danny’s public greeting (chosen no doubt for their audience) is “Ew, you’re slimy, you are so showering before I kiss you.” And Steve doesn’t have to pretend when he grins and sprints for the showers, a bright expression of glee no doubt painted across his face. And when, upon his scrubbed-clean reappearance in front of Danny, even though it’s no longer public, Danny does in fact kiss him, Steve’s toes curl. It’s just a slightly-longer-than-quick press of the lips. Nothing heated or passionate in the least, but it’s his lips touching Danny’s, and it’s more than a little nice. 

When he opens his eyes after, and sees Danny grinning softly at him, he’s not sure how to react, and probably that shows on his face. 

“Figured we’d better have done that at least once, just in case,” Danny explains, matter of factly. 

And if Steve had any guts at all he’d suggest they have an extended practice session. But he doesn’t, so he stands there probably blushing, certainly smiling awkwardly, and trying to think of something to say other than _Please kiss me again_.

“Here, wear this blue shirt tonight,” Danny says, waving to the outfit he’s laid out on the bed for Steve. And it’s then that Steve notices Danny’s wearing his pale blue shirt. The one Steve loves, the one that brings out the crystal clear blue of Danny’s eyes. 

Steve’s always suspected they make a striking pair, when he wears bright blue and Danny wears sky blue, and the possibility that Danny’s thought the same threatens to give him hope. So he dresses, and Danny fusses with his collar, and brushes imaginary lint off his shoulders, and he lingers closely, as though he really did miss Steve that day, as though he maybe isn’t going to have to work very hard at pretending to be needy tonight.

“How was the hot tub?” Steve asks, wanting to prolong their closeness here in private before heading out for the public performance. 

“Yeah, nice,” Danny replies, sounding a little bit like Steve’s shaken him from some sort of reverie of his own. “I think it really helped. Not as much as you as a heating pad helps, but not bad.”

And yes, Steve likes that, that he wins out over a fancy jetted therapy pool. He’d imagined Danny was kinda shitting him about the whole _you make a really good heating pad_ thing, but maybe he was wrong about that, too. Maybe he’s just been wrong about a whole lot of things. 

It’s an interesting thought for sure. 

“Shall we?” He asks, holding his arm out for Danny, and when Danny slides his in with Steve’s and settles against his side, it just feels _right_. Which maybe is why he risks it, pressing a kiss to the top of Danny’s head as they walk towards the dining hall. And he doesn’t think he’s imagining it when Danny shivers and moves closer to Steve in response. 

Danny’s plan to appear “needy,” such that Steve is then set up to stay with him the next day, evidently consists of Danny mostly being himself. Somewhat whiny, loudly vocal, bordering on bossy and controlling, and a little bit sweetly clingy. And Steve can tell he’s pushing it, he’s definitely putting on a show. But Steve can also tell he’s working from the repertoire of Danny’s Ordinary Behaviors With Steve. And he flatters himself that it means something. Maybe even that their relationship is already something in the neighborhood of the kind of relationship they’re pretending to be in tonight. 

And god help him, but it starts Steve thinking that maybe Danny’s not having to pretend much either. 

So when they leave dinner early, as part of Danny’s plan of seeming needy, and they take the long way back through the trees to their cabin, they keep up the pretense, without really needing to. And when Danny slows, either because he’s sore or because he’s pretending to be, Steve pauses them along a railing with an overlook, eases them into it, lets Danny lean back against him, and when Danny’s hand slides into his with a soft squeeze, Steve lets out a little huff of breath that stirs Danny’s hair, which in turn elicits a shudder from him. 

“We’re good at this,” Danny whispers. And maybe he sounds surprised, and maybe that stings Steve just a little bit.

“Of course we are,” he replies softly, and yeah he’s using the possibility of them being observed as his reason for it, when he presses another kiss into Danny’s hair. 

And maybe it’s that, maybe it’s something else, but Danny straightens up and takes a deep breath. “Let’s get back to the room, I really am in more pain than I’d like to be in, and you really _do_ make a good heating pad.”

Steve hesitates for a moment, an idea forming in his head, uncertain if he dares offer, but then he does. And he’s sure Danny’s gonna say _no_. But instead he says “Yeah, okay.” And Steve knows he’s smirking hugely as he lifts Danny up on his back and carries him to the room piggyback like that, and he’s sure it’s not entirely just in case anyone’s watching that they linger a bit over a soft kiss when Steve sets him down at their door.

Danny just kind of stands there, eyeing Steve in the flickering lantern light. Fussing again with his shirt, probably thinking he’s fixing it after his ride. Not that Steve cares at all. He’d gladly ruin this shirt and all his others too if it’d get Danny to admit that maybe they’re not actually pretending. 

“That was nice,” Danny says tentatively, after he’s satisfied Steve’s shirt has survived the ordeal. 

“The ride?” Steve asks, still smirking.

Danny chuckles. “No... the kiss.”

And the smirk evaporates. “Yeah, it was,” Steve whispers back, as though speaking it too loudly will make the moment vanish. 

Ice blue eyes latch on to Steve’s in the twinkling light, and Danny’s breath catches. “This isn’t... we’re not really...” he swallows, takes a step closer to Steve. 

And maybe Steve’s reacting in part to having spent the other evening listening to Danny talk about how he was the one who won Steve over with his wit and wisdom and maybe he’s just still in do-all-the-things-to-make-Danny-happy mode, but he suddenly needs to be the one, needs to step up, take the risk. And maybe that’s just him and his self-sacrificing tendencies, but he’s driven to it, propelled, across the timelessness of this place, across the otherworldliness. 

“This is absolutely real to me,” he says, and he stoops down and captures Danny’s lips in his, and to his immense and flooding relief, Danny whimpers into the kiss and intensifies it. And maybe Steve’s really stepping into his role, maybe he’s just being practical, but he eases Danny into the room and towards the bed, then draws him down onto his lap, so at least the weight is off his knee, and dammit of course one of them would be injured when they finally get to this place, finally let go of the lie that this hasn’t been where they’ve been heading all along. 

Breaking the kiss only momentarily, Danny falls back onto the bed, pulling Steve along with him, then draws Steve closer against him, deepening the kiss even further. And just before things get frantic, Steve slows them down, softening the kisses, creating space between his body and Danny’s. And yes, before you ask, he is in fact utterly aware of the irony of his being the cooler head prevailing. 

Danny whimpers again, this time at the loss of contact, and scoots closer. “I know, I know, this isn’t exactly....”

Steve laughs softly. Brushes the hair he’s made a mess of out of Danny’s eyes. “I didn’t come prepared for this,” he says, regret about equal with the amusement in his voice. 

“You would so have been kicked out of the Boy Scouts,” says Danny who would know because he was, but his tone is fond and not frustrated, and he brings his hand up to run it through Steve’s hair, and there’s that feeling of being petted like the loyal retriever, and it really is so fitting a description. 

Steve’s about to point out there’s other stuff they could do, but something holds him back. And there again, it’s Steve _not_ being the one to rush in, jump fully clothed, feet first, without looking. He smiles. Because that’s absolutely why. He _wants_ to look. He wants to savor. He wants it all but he wants to take his time. And truly honestly, he wants just this, being held by Danny, being next to him in bed knowing they could go there, knowing they would go there, _will_ go there. It’s more than enough, it’s almost too much. And he wants to get every single drop out of the experience. 

Eventually Danny slips out of bed to use the facilities, and Steve waits till he’s back before he goes to brush his teeth. When he returns, Danny’s in bed, but he’s left room for Steve. Much more than that bare edge he’d been balanced on just a couple days ago. And it feels like a lifetime ago, it feels like lightyears ago. He feels older, somehow, but in a good way. In that kind of _I made it through a trial and I learned something and I leveled up_ kind of way. It feels like a reward, he guesses is his point, when he slides into bed next to Danny, and he knows this time, it’s not just because he makes a nice heating pad. 

“Was that really why,” he asks. “You getting me in bed that first night? Because the heat helps your knee?”

Danny licks his lips, grabs Steve’s tee shirt by the neck and yanks him closer. Crushing their mouths together in an almost vicious kiss, Danny reaches down and lifts Steve’s leg across his own injured one. Once he’s satisfied with the placement, he lets Steve’s lips go. 

“Maybe not the only reason, but yes, you are a really good heating pad.” 

“You are completely ridiculous, you know that?”

Danny grins. “I didn’t see you complaining,” he points out, and Steve stammers in response. “Mm-hmm, that’s what I thought.”

“Why do I feel like this has all been some kind of test?” 

“And if it was?” His words are serious, but his eyes are dancing playfully, and honestly Steve wouldn’t mind if Danny tested him every day. As long as it means getting his attention. _Especially like this_.

“I guess I passed,” Steve murmurs, letting Danny’s touch lull him towards sleep, pressing lazy kisses against Danny’s lips, tangling his fingers with Danny’s under the covers, making notes in his mind of each sensation, every touch, every breath. Saving them away in his file of memories he wants never to forget. 

“What makes you think the test is over?”

And he’s too far towards sleep to fully laugh, but he huffs soft breaths against Danny’s skin, only just registering Danny’s shivered response before he slips sweetly into sleep. 

When he wakes in the night to find Danny wrapped solidly around him and he couldn’t escape even if he wanted, he thinks to himself he hopes the test never ends. He’ll gladly spend the rest of his life proving this to be true. 

And in the morning, when he finds himself being prodded with a grumpy and insistent finger demanding coffee and something sweet, he knows that’s a test he already passes regularly and with flying colors. But when he climbs back into bed, supplied with coffee, fresh pastries, and fruit, and he’s rewarded with a slightly sugary kiss on the lips—well. It’s a reward he never dared hoped for, and it’s one that makes him want to outdo himself. 

It’s not till considerably later, many sweet and lingering kisses later, that he sets out to keep an eye on the supposed delivery process. On his way he checks in with Tani and Junior back at HQ, via the satellite phone, and the news they impart sinks his buoyant mood. 

It shouldn’t. Because the news is that while he and Danny have been out amongst the trees and gourmet meals, Jerry and Tani and Junior have tracked down the evidence that’s the whole reason he and Danny came out here in the first place. And Steve’s proud of his team, of course he is. He just maybe wishes they hadn’t been quite so efficient. 

So he stalls, before heading back to the room. Because he’s not sure. He knows lying to Danny is never a good move. But he’s afraid that if he tells Danny the truth it’ll mean he’ll want to leave. And Steve’s not ready to let this little fantasy paradise end just yet.

But he also does not want to start this new chapter of his relationship with Danny on the liquid foundation of a lie. So even though it feels a little bit like stabbing himself in the heart, he heads back to tell Danny the “good” news.

“Huh,” comes the reply to Steve’s relaying of what Tani’d told him. “Well good for them for working that out. I guess it’s too bad we came all this way for nothing. But you know,” and here he holds out his hand with an impatient wiggle, as though he’s had entirely enough of Steve standing there at parade rest for his debrief, and he only continues once Steve’s laid back down on the bed at Danny’s side and Danny’s got their fingers woven together, gazing down at them as though it were some kind of minor miracle. “Probably we’d better stay at least another day anyway, just so it doesn’t look weird.”

Steve nods, trying to seem serious. “Yep, that’s what I was thinking.”

And Danny grins over at him. “Were you now?”

“Mmm,” Steve responds, scooting closer on the bed, until he’s settled right up against Danny’s side. “Just to be sure.”

“Oh, I don’t think there’s really any question at all, babe.” Which is answering the unasked question, though it’s the only one that matters. 

And as they slowly start to kiss, it occurs to Steve that he’s really glad, after all, that Danny read all those spy novels. Which is when he realizes maybe Danny’s motivation for that was a little bit different from what he’d been thinking. 

“Is this why you've been reading those books?”

And Danny chuckles, running his fingers through Steve’s hair thoughtfully. “What, to figure out how to seduce you? Mmm, not at first. But the more I read the more I realized it’s always on ops that the good stuff happens.”

“The good stuff, huh?”

“Mmmm, like this....” And Danny demonstrates what he means by kissing Steve thoroughly, kissing him like he’s promised him the moon, and they get more than a little lost in it, which is probably how they miss the satellite phone alert, and it’s definitely why they’re still making out when Lou and Adam chopper in to save their asses because their cover is blown. 

Not that either of them minds in the least, because it turns out that making out at home in a queen size bed is really, really great, too. 


End file.
